Mosaic
by Artemis1000
Summary: 100 mosaic pieces of North Italy's life through the ages. 100 themes fic. Italy family-centric. HRE/Chibitalia and implied GerIta.
1. Chapter 1

Character(s) or Pairing(s): HRE/Chibitalia, some GerIta if you squint, but it's really focused on the Italian family and friends  
>Warnings: human names used, dark themes<br>Summary: 100 mosaic pieces of North Italy's life, spanning from Ancient times to the modern era.  
>Notes: This is the result of me realizing I hadn't written my favorite character yet and being too intimidated by my WIPs to start yet another multi-chapter story. I hope the mix of lengths and tenses works, I've never done a themes fic before, so I experimented a lot.<p>

**Mosaic**

1. Introduction  
>He hopped onto his new boss' desk, gave him his brightest smile, all shining eyes and bouncing curl. "I'm North Italy! I'm the personification of your country." By the door, Lovino snorted. "Alright, I'm half the personification of your country, but it's not as confusing as it sounds!" Feliciano Vargas loved meeting new people.<p>

2. Love  
>After the Holy Roman Empire left, Feliciano cried himself to sleep many nights. It was then that he learned the first lesson of love: it hurts.<p>

3. Light  
>As his country's sins mounted, Feliciano watched the light fade from Ludwig's eyes. So he hugged him tighter and laughed louder and became his light.<p>

4. Dark  
>The child stumbled through the dark forest, heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst out of his chest any moment now. He snuffled noisily and wiped a dirty hand over his eyes. "I'm never going to run away again!" A bird screeched, Feliciano stifled a yell of fright.<p>

Holy Roman Empire found him the next morning, a sobbing bundle of grimy frills and tears. "I just wanted to go home!"

5. Rot  
>Whenever a historian says that the Roman Empire rotted from within, Feliciano wants to scream there was nothing rotten about Grandpa Rome.<p>

6. Break  
>When the Axis broke, Feliciano was hurt but not surprised. He had seen many nations try and fail to make the world revolve around them. The world always moved on regardless, it was merciless like that. He just prayed they would all get out of it without too many new scars.<p>

7. Heaven  
>He once asked Lovino if dead nations go to heaven. Lovino snorted and called him an idiot. He still doesn't know if that means yes or no.<p>

8. Away  
>He tried hard not to be useless while Ludwig fought at the Eastern Front, but without his best friend to tease and hug, he couldn't pretend anymore that the war was just a game at the end of which all the dead people would stand up again and walk away.<p>

9. Cut  
>Feliciano yelped as he cut himself. Austria, never Roderich to him, always Austria, because he was tall and scary and very strict, rolled his eyes behind his glasses and wondered aloud how anyone could be so clumsy as to give himself paper cuts stacking sheets of music.<p>

10. Breathe  
>"Breathe, Lovino, breathe! Breathe in deeply and exhale through your mouth! Just like a panting dog!"<p>

"Damn it, fratello! I'm injured, not in labor!"

11. Memory  
>Grandpa Rome who had conquered proud kingdoms and crushed yet prouder nations into the dust beneath his sandals used to have infinite patience with Feliciano as he taught him how to hold a paintbrush in his chubby little fingers. He would hold his hand in his own much larger one and dip the tip of the brush into the paint, murmuring, "Just like that, not too much." Then he would guide their hands to the canvas and sweep the colorful tip of the paintbrush over the white background. "Let's draw a circle, little Feli. See. There is earth."<p>

12. Insanity  
>When he began to liken the staccato of gunfire to music, Feliciano wondered if he had lost his mind.<p>

13. Misfortune  
>He plopped right into the dirt – again. "Ve~ victory is supposed to be a slave of Rome!"<p>

14. Smile  
>The first time Ludwig smiled at him and it wasn't a pained or forced smile, he hugged him with a yell of delight and decided they would be best friends forever and ever.<p>

15. Silence  
>For all that he was loud, he treasured the silence they shared the most.<p>

16. Spit  
>"What was it like?" Elizaveta asked him much later, when his tears had dried and he would blush with delight as he told her of his first kiss.<p>

Feliciano's face scrunched up as he recalled every moment of the kiss with Holy Roman Empire. His cheeks burned. "Ve~ it tasted of spit!"

17. Blood  
>Feliciano wore his blackshirt with such pride. Then he realized you couldn't see the blood stains on it.<p>

18. Under  
>Under Austrian rule, he learned to be patient. Under French rule, he learned to accept what he couldn't change. Under Italian rule, he learned not to strangle his bosses for sheer frustration.<p>

19. Gray  
>People see Feliciano's light and Lovino's dark, but Feliciano is envious of Seborga's gray.<p>

20. Fortitude  
>"I bend, but I never break!"<p>

21. War  
>Once upon a time, Feliciano was a painter. Mankind knows no sadder words than 'once upon a time.'<p>

22. Mother  
>He buried his teary face in Elizaveta's skirts and hiccupped softly. She knelt, enfolded him in a loving embrace and whispered soothing nothings in Hungarian until his tears ceased.<p>

23. Distasteful  
>His stomach recoiled at the mere smell of the liverwurst sandwich. Ludwig looked so proud and expectant that he asked for seconds.<p>

24. Want  
>Nations always want more; more land, more wealth, more power. If not wanting any of that made him useless, so be it, he decided and broke their hearts by rejecting the Holy Roman Empire's offer to become Rome rebuilt.<p>

25. Lurking  
>Feliciano knew he shouldn't be watching big brother Francis do decidedly grown-up things, but he had always been too curious for his own good.<p>

26. Europe  
>Feliciano looked up to the blue flag with the golden stars and felt tears flood his eyes. "We'll make it work this time," he vowed.<p>

27. Foreign  
>The first time he visited his beloved's country, he felt like he was a foreign object that had no place being there and everyone knew it. The eyes struck him as cold and judging, the speech harsh. Now, it feels like coming home.<p>

28. Sorrow  
>When big brother France turned on him, he cried. Francis scoffed. He didn't realize that Feliciano was crying for him rather than because of him.<p>

29. Urban  
>Although he spent many years as a servant in Austria's house, Italy Veneziano knows the story of each stone and plank that makes the city he was named for.<p>

30. Rain  
>Venice in rain is a depressing sight to tourists. Feliciano loves to wade through the rain-splattered streets. They are empty then and it feels as if he and the grumbling brother he is dragging along are the only people in the entire city, intrepid explorers discovering it all over again.<p>

31. Flower  
>Little Feliciano blushed as he offered a single slightly wilted rose from Austria's garden to Elizaveta. The flower was already slightly mangled from the tight grip his chubby fist had on it. "Pretty girls should get flowers."<p>

32. Night  
>When Feliciano hears Lovino twist and turn in the throes of a nightmare, he crawls into his bed and hugs him tightly, no matter how much he grumbles. When Lovino thinks Feliciano has fallen asleep, his arms will tentatively wrap around his waist and pull him closer.<p>

33. Wrath  
>After the Battles of the Isonzo, it took years before he could look at Austria and Hungary's faces again without feeling helpless burning rage.<p>

34. Moon  
>"Do you see the rabbit pounding medicine?" China asked.<p>

Feliciano squinted at the moon. "I think it's a hare, not a rabbit!"

China smiled.

35. Walk  
>They don't walk in synch. Lovino strides forward with angry pounding steps while Feliciano lingers whenever he comes across something interesting. Seborga can't be bothered to move at all unless pretty girls are involved. Feliciano likes it that way – they get the best of all worlds.<p>

36. Precious  
>Feliciano had a picture of just the three of them, Kiku, Ludwig and himself all looking so magnificent in their uniforms. They had taken it on a sunny day when there had been nothing to do but laugh and talk and the war seemed so far away it might as well have taken place in another lifetime.<p>

He used to display it proudly in his house, though Lovino bitched about having to see the potato bastard's ugly mug even when he wasn't around.

Then alliances shifted as they always do in the long lives of nations. On some days Feliciano's body ached even more than his heart.

He kept the picture in the shelf of his bedside table, next to the Iron Cross, and when the pain became too much to bear, he clung to it and remembered a time when it had been easy to remember that the other side was human, too.

37. See  
>He knows whenever other nations look at him, they see an useless nation and a coward. He tells himself he was born to be a lover, not a fighter, and then he can pretend it doesn't hurt as much anymore.<p>

38. Abandoned  
>At first, he wept for Grandpa Rome. He didn't notice when he started weeping for himself instead.<p>

39. Dream  
>"Ve~ I had the most wonderful dream last night, Germany! The earth was made of pasta with rivers of tomato sauce!"<p>

40. 4:29 PM  
>Feliciano groaned as the tip of a boot nudged his side and a tirade of angry German assaulted his ears. He turned onto his side and pressed the pillow over his ears. If Germany truly thought he was going to cut short his siesta, he had bigger issues than his disgusting taste in food.<p>

41. Citric Acid  
>He bit into the piece of orange with a moan of delight. Citric acid spurted and sprayed into his eyes. Feliciano squeaked, his juice-soaked hands flew to his eyes and rubbed before he realized what he was doing.<p>

Lovino snorted indelicately. "You're such an idiot." He heard Lovino's footsteps vanish.

A minute later, he was still frantically trying to rub the juice out of his eyes when Lovino's hands grasped his wrists in an iron grip and wrenched them away from his face, all the while cursing up a storm about Feliciano's stupidity, uselessness and general inability to live. Then a wet washcloth wiped gently at his eyes until they stopped burning.

He beamed at Lovino, smile bright and eyes still a bit teary. "Thank you, Lovi, you're the best!"

"Chigi!" Heat rose to Lovino's cheeks. He turned away, trembling with humiliation and rage. "Fucking useless bastard!"

42. Still  
>Only corpses are still, so Feliciano makes sure to remain in motion.<p>

43. Die  
>"Why do they keep dying when we still need them?" Feliciano sobbed as he fell to his knees at Giuseppe Garibaldi's grave; for once, Lovino said nothing and wept with him.<p>

44. Two Roads  
>Feliciano had never liked that talk of two roads for if there were two, it was guaranteed that Lovino would take one and he the other.<p>

45. Two Guns  
>The first time Feliciano fired a gun, he was amazed and delighted how easy it was. Suddenly, it didn't matter that he lacked the strength to cock a crossbow or was too clumsy for a bow.<p>

The first time Feliciano killed with a gun, he was amazed and delighted how easy it was. It was so clean, so impersonal; you didn't even need to meet the eyes of your victim.

That was when Feliciano decided he hated guns.

46. Drop  
>"I'm not going to let go of the rope," Kiku promised for the seventh time.<p>

Feliciano's whole body trembled so hard even his curl bobbed up and down. "But… but… what if it slips out of your hands?"

Kiku met his eyes, black met brown, calm met scared. "Trust me."

Feliciano did.

47. Dirt  
>He had no canvas and no paints, so he drew pictures into the dirt.<p>

48. Young  
>Feliciano stared at his eternally youthful face in the mirror and marveled how one who felt so old could look so young.<p>

49. Preservatives  
>"Big brother Francis, what is a preservative?"<p>

Two hours later, he had his answer, but he could have done without the charts and hand-drawn guide book.

50. Breaking the Rules  
>Germany liked rules. It was the first thing he learned about him. The second thing he learned was that Germany liked to shout when you broke his rules. Germany looked funny when he was shouting. So of course Feliciano just had to break his rules at every possible opportunity.<p>

Footnotes:  
>33. The Twelve Battles of the Isonzo in WWI killed 300.000 Italians (half the Italian war casualties) and 200.000 Austro-Hungarians.<br>43. Giuseppe Garibaldi is an Italian national hero for the struggle for unification.


	2. Chapter 2

Character(s) or Pairing(s): HRE/Chibitalia, some GerIta if you squint, but it's really focused on the Italian family and friends  
>Rating: PG-13<br>Warnings: human names used, dark themes such as war, war atrocities and death

**Mosaic**  
><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

51. Sport  
>"Penalty shoutout?" Feliciano whimpered. "I can't take it!" With a high-pitched whine, he buried his face in Lovino's Del Piero jersey with the number 10.<p>

When Fabio Grosso scored smack dab in the centre of the goal as if scoring the decisive goal in a World Cup final was something he had been doing all his life, the whole Italian fan block exploded into pure joy. Feliciano and Lovino Vargas were right there in the middle of it, screaming the loudest.

52. Old  
>"Aw, cute little Italy has grown up to be such a cradle-robber, kesesese!" Prussia wiped away an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye. "I'm proud of you!"<p>

Feliciano's blush equaled the shade of red of big brother Antonio's tomatoes. That, however, was nothing compared to Ludwig's blush.

53. Desecrate  
>Feliciano ran like only an Italian nation in full retreat could run. Unfortunately, he was being chased by an Italian father hell-bent on catching the man who had desecrated his only daughter's innocence. He didn't stand a chance.<p>

54. Tower  
>He was right there in the middle of history in the making, yet there were times he felt as if he were locked away in a tower, forced to do nothing but watch.<p>

55. Need  
>It was a choice between what he wanted and what his people needed. Although it hurt, it was a surprisingly easy decision to make.<p>

56. Biohazard  
>"Germany! Germany! War imprisonment was horrible! England cooked for me!"<p>

57. Sacrificial  
>His children, his precious children, led like lambs to the slaughter for yet another boss's dream of glory. Feliciano wanted to weep, so he smiled.<p>

58. Kick in the Head  
>"You kicked me."<p>

Feliciano blinked innocently at Ludwig. "Ve?"

"You kicked me!"

Feliciano grinned unabashedly. "I told you not to play striker when I'm defending!"

59. No Way Out  
>His breath came in sharp little gasps, his legs burnt from exertion, but no matter how fast he ran, he could feel them coming closer – once he awoke, he didn't go back to sleep all night.<p>

60. Desert  
>Ludwig called it Italian stupidity to waste drinking water in the desert on cooking pasta; Feliciano called it kindness. The least – the only thing – he could do for his boys was not to send them to their deaths on an empty stomach.<p>

61. Fairy Tale  
>When he was young, he waited for Holy Roman Empire to come riding on a magnificent steed and sweep him off his feet.<p>

62. Voodoo  
>Prussia and Lovino were glaring at another like they would best like to stab the other's eyes out with a hot needle. Feliciano pressed a hand against his mouth to stifle his squeal of: "Ve, how cute!"<p>

63. Do Not Disturb  
>Austria hated to be disturbed by loud, clumsy children when he was playing music, but Feliciano would risk his wrath anyway to listen.<p>

64. City  
>The sun shone mercilessly on Rome, heating up the air until not even open windows brought any relief. Lovino twisted on the bed and groaned; that small movement had already sapped all his strength. "I told you we should have gone to our summer house, idiot!"<p>

Feliciano hummed cheerfully as he continued to throw paints and brushes into a bag. "I told you, silly, I want to capture Rome in the summer light!"

65. Horrorific  
>Feliciano buried his face against Ludwig's chest and whimpered. It was the last time Ludwig gave in to Feliciano wanting to watch a scary movie.<p>

66. Snow  
>Feliciano may have looked silly with a bobble hat and mittens in the Italian colors, but nowhere near as silly as Lovino looked when the snowball hit him smack dab in the face.<p>

67. Drum  
>To the sound of rolling drums, the army marched under the banner of their flag.<p>

Feliciano felt his heart beat in synch with his brother's, pounding to the tune of 'freedom, freedom, freedom.'

68. Hero  
>For all his talks of being one, Feliciano thought Alfred didn't understand what being a hero truly entailed. In real life, heroes didn't get the girl and the happy ending, most of them fell into oblivion or disgrace. That is why Feliciano remembered them in the name of all his children.<p>

69. Annoyance  
>"You're annoying," Lovino snorted and turned away. "I don't want to unite with a weak child like you!"<p>

Feliciano smiled. Lovino hadn't said he wouldn't.

70. 67%  
>Feliciano was 67% certain he would get away this time with painting a moustache on Austria's favorite portrait.<p>

71. Obsession  
>With furrowed eyebrows, Feliciano watched Lovino's search for the perfect tomato and concluded that Ludwig was so lucky he didn't have any odd quirks like his brother.<p>

72. Mislead  
>When surrender became inevitable, Feliciano worried if Ludwig would think he had misled him. When he told Lovino of his fears, he snorted and said that they had both been misleading themselves all the time, pretending nations could be friends.<p>

73. I. Can't.  
>He wished he could have made Holy Roman understand why he had to reject him. Other nations thought their people deserved to be at the top of the world, Feliciano thought of it as cruelty rather than a privilege.<p>

74. Confrontation  
>It was when they tried to convince him that he would be better off without his brother that they learnt that Feliciano never backed down on the things that truly mattered to him.<p>

75. Mirror  
>Feliciano looked at the smiling face in the mirror and wondered why no one ever remembered that Venice was well-known for its masks.<p>

76. Broken  
>Once, when he was small, he found a dove with a broken wing. He sneaked it into his room. Austria wouldn't approve of Feliciano bringing what he considered vermin into the house. Holy Roman caught him, but he begged and cried until he agreed to keep his secret. Feliciano would later learn that some things were beyond repair, but first, he would learn the joy of mending what was broken.<p>

77. Testament  
>Feliciano thought it was a testament to the Italian brothers' strength that they bent, but never broke.<p>

78. Drink  
>They drank wine until late into the night and made love in the first light of dawn.<p>

79. FUCK  
>Lovino cursed up a storm about some imaginary slight, Feliciano laughed at nothing in particular, Seborga was lost in daydreams. They met no conventional idea of a perfect family outing, but they wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else.<p>

80. Words  
>He talked and talked and talked even when he had nothing to say because there ere too many thoughts and feelings in him to keep them all confined within his own human body.<p>

81. Pen and Paper  
>Treaties were nothing but ink on paper to the bosses; they never realized that they were signed with the blood, sweat and tears of their nations.<p>

82. +  
>It was always "Veneziano and Romano" and Feliciano thought others might be bothered by always being mentioned in the same breath with someone else – he knew Lovino was – but he took comfort in it.<p>

83. Heal  
>"Play for me, Austria," he would beg and let the music carry him back to simpler times.<p>

84. Cold  
>When Lovino had a cold and Feliciano didn't, he would stay at his brother's bedside and fret and cry until Lovino grew tired of his theatrics and kicked him out. Lovino thought he was being melodramatic; Feliciano remembered that Grandpa Rome's decline had started innocuous, too.<p>

85. Sick  
>The first time he witnessed a massacre he cried and puked his guts out until he fainted from exhaustion.<p>

86. Seeing Red  
>Osman Empire shouldn't have mocked his love for Holy Roman.<p>

87. Hunger  
>He was so hungry, hungry for life and love and companionship and when he met Germany and Japan, he knew, though they didn't know it yet, that they were, too.<p>

88. Pain  
>Feliciano cried the loudest over the smallest of pains.<p>

89. Through the Fire  
>Sometimes he wondered if they had all lost their minds, to treat war like a game and laugh while their people were dying.<p>

90. Triangle  
>Feliciano owned a Stradivarius Antonio Stradivari had made just for him, but if he had to choose his favorite instrument, he would have picked his battered old triangle – the only instrument Austria had trusted him not to break.<p>

91. Drown  
>He used to be afraid of drowning. That was before Holy Roman promised to save him.<p>

92. Rape  
>Feliciano was a virgin, but he knew all about this most insidious weapon of war, for when the people suffered, the nation suffered as well.<p>

93. Iron  
>"Iron will" was a funny saying. Everyone knew that iron would rust. It was a cold, dead thing. He preferred to be a tree, bending in the wind, green and alive.<p>

94. Soft  
>There was nothing soft to Lovino's scowling features, but Feliciano preferred to look beneath the surface anyway.<p>

95. Advertisement  
>When Feliciano came home with ten bottles of rose-scented bath salts and a complimentary yellow rubber duck, Lovino first had a conniption, then picked up one of the bottles and hit him over the head with it.<p>

96. Storm  
>Feliciano danced in the storm until he was soaked from the rain. Ludwig scolded him, Kiku looked politely puzzled, but Lovino understood that he was trying to wash off the war.<p>

97. Safety  
>He knew there was no true safety anywhere in the midst of a war, but when he was with Ludwig, he felt safe anyway.<p>

98. Puzzle  
>Sometimes Ludwig would watch him for hours. Feliciano used to squirm under his gaze, until he realized that Ludwig was trying to figure out the puzzle he presented to him.<p>

99. Alone  
>They had talked of old times and said their goodbyes, but now he stood here all alone, watching the murky grey sea, and feeling like having lost Holy Roman all over again.<p>

100. Gone  
>A solemn promise: "I'll never stop loving you."<p>

The end


End file.
